Angola, Namibia and Kenya: armed struggle and mass movements to independence
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All 12 Flashcards — Angola, Namibia and Kenya: armed struggle and mass movements to independence
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Question
What does MPLA stand for and when was it founded?
Answer
Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola — founded 1956, Marxist-leaning, based among the Mbundu and strongest in Luanda.
Question
Who founded UNITA and where was its main support base?
Answer
Jonas Savimbi founded UNITA in 1966; its main support base was the Ovimbundu people in southern Angola.
Question
What event in Lisbon in 1974 led directly to Angolan independence?
Answer
The Carnation Revolution — army officers exhausted by colonial wars overthrew the Portuguese government, and the new government withdrew from Africa, granting Angola independence on 11 November 1975.
Question
What happened to Angola immediately after independence in 1975?
Answer
It collapsed into civil war because MPLA, UNITA and FNLA had never agreed on power-sharing; the war became a Cold War proxy conflict (Cuba/USSR backing MPLA, US/South Africa backing UNITA).
Question
What was SWAPO and who led it?
Answer
The South West Africa People's Organization, founded 1960, was the main Namibian nationalist movement; its leading figure was Sam Nujoma, who became Namibia's first president.
Question
When did SWAPO turn from petitioning the UN to armed struggle, and why?
Answer
In 1966, after the International Court of Justice failed to rule against South African rule; SWAPO's armed wing PLAN then began guerrilla raids from bases in Zambia.
Question
When did Namibia become independent, and what agreement made it possible?
Answer
21 March 1990, following a 1988 agreement linking Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola to South African withdrawal from Namibia, then UN-supervised elections won by SWAPO.
Question
What was the main grievance behind the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya?
Answer
Loss of the best highland farmland to white settlers, which left many Kikuyu landless — especially ex-soldiers and squatters pushed off settler farms.
Question
What was the Kenya African Union (KAU) and who led it?
Answer
A moderate, constitutional nationalist party founded in 1944; Jomo Kenyatta became its president in 1947, demanding land reform through legal channels.
Question
What was Britain's response to the Mau Mau uprising from 1952?
Answer
Britain declared a State of Emergency in 1952, deployed the army, and ran mass detention camps (with documented brutality, e.g. Hola) to crush the revolt by 1956.
Question
What was KANU and what did it achieve?
Answer
The Kenya African National Union, founded 1960 and led by Jomo Kenyatta after his 1961 release; it won the 1963 elections and led Kenya to independence on 12 December 1963.
Question
Compare the outcome of independence in Angola versus Kenya.
Answer
Angola: three rival movements (MPLA/UNITA/FNLA) never agreed on power, so independence in 1975 collapsed into civil war. Kenya: one dominant party (KANU) took over smoothly in 1963 under Kenyatta.
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Topic 21.11 hub
20th-century nationalist and independence movements in Africa
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